CUC is obliged to pay $500,000 a month but its Executive Director Antonio Muna said they have fully paid Aggreko even before their contract ends on Sept. 12.
Muna reiterated that CUC is no longer interested in extending its contract with Aggreko.
Aggreko’s 15-megawatt diesel-fired power generators has been helping CUC address the island’s power problem since September last year.
Muna said the billing due to for the period of July 16 to September was fully paid when CUC made a three-month deposit to Aggreko last month.
Citing “indications” of sufficient power generation, Muna said CUC has already notified Aggreko about their contract’s non-renewal.
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, in his recent declaration of a state of disaster emergency, said CUC has determined that it will be able to produce from its owned units by Sept. 12.
“This decision to rely on CUC’s own generation, at a substantial cost savings for the people of the CNMI, is safe as long as CUC can employ the staff required to manage its system,” the governor said.
By September, CUC will be producing 55 megawatts on Saipan, Muna said.
He added that they can maintain a 15-megawatt reserve capacity since the island system peak load only needs 40 megawatts.
The 55 megawatts will come from the 14 megawatts of the Pacific Marine and Industrial Corp., which operates Power Plant 4, and from CUC’s power plants, he said.
In September, he said, Power Plant 1 will continue to produce 33 megawats while Power Plant 2 will have an available capacity of 8 megawatts.
By October, CUC’s total capacity is expected to reach 47 megawatts after Power Plant ‘s engine 6, which already generates 4 megawatts, will increase its generation to 10 megawats when the repair job is completed, Muna said.
He added that they can maintain 61 megawatts of total generating capacity on Saipan from October to December.
Saipan will have 22 megawatts in reserve capacity and a 39-megawatt peak load, he added.
According to schedule, Muna said the repair of Power Plant 1’s engine 1 is expected to be completed this month.
Engine 2 was scheduled to be fully repaired and overhauled last July.
The crankshaft repair of engine 3 was completed in March, Muna said.
By October, he added, they are expecting to complete the repair of engine 5 while engine 6’s repair will be finished by December.
Both engines will generate 10 megawatts of power each.
At present, engine 7 is generating 10 megawatts after its repair job was completed in March while engine 8 is still producing 4 megawatts even as its foundation is being repaired, Muna said.
The extension they provided to the repair of the power engines was in anticipation of the delays in the arrival of parts, he added.
Affected by the time-line changes were engines 1 and 2 whose schedule of completion was extended from June to July.
Muna said engine 5’s rehabilitation was started ahead of time and its completion date has been extended to October while CUC waits for the availability of parts.
